Wednesday, October 12, 2005

The other night during the Angels win over the Yankees Tim McCarver noted that Derek Jeter doesn't get thrown out bases very often. Since I sometimes am one of those people that criticize broadcasters like McCarver, I thought I'd do the opposite and confirm McCarver's intuition.

From 2000 through 2004 Jeter was thrown out just twice in 248 opportunities when on first and the batter singled or doubled or on second when a batter singled. Only Ray Durham who wasn't thrown out once in 203 opportunities and Bernie Williams who was thrown out once in 215 opportunities and Jimmy Rollins who was thrown out once in 180 opportunities were much better. Others who were also very good were Carlos Guillen (1-176), Ichiro Suzuki (2-246), Nomar Garciapara (1-174), Barry Bonds (2-241), and Tim Salmon (1-174). Of course Jeter, Durham, and Rollins are also among the best baserunners in baseball and all ranked in the top 15 in the number of incremental runs gained.